Yet shall the armies of Eden
bring the truth to the world, and the redemption be true, lest when their warfare
is past, After the strong is the battle, after the swift is
the break. Give me the true and the faithful,
victory promised through grace. Thank you. I don't know if I
can play here. That's tough, but good song. You're leaving that next. All right, go back to our text. We've been studying the believer's
warfare in this world in the armory that God, the armor of
God, which he has provided for our health. 13 through 15. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. I wish Brother John Bunyan were
here to preach this to you tonight. I've been reading him after recalling to memory his book,
The Holy War, and I remember reading in Bill Pilgrim's Progress
where the Christian was taken into the armory of God and they
put all that armor on him before he went out. And I went back
and read that, and it was such a blessing to me. And I thought,
I wish I could hear old John Bunyan preach this. But he did
say this. Let me read this to you. This
is a direct quote from him, from that book, Pilgrim Frogger. One
of the footnotes. He said, Christ himself is the
Christian's armor. When he puts on Christ, he is
then completely armed from head to foot. Are his loins girt about
with truth? Christ is the truth. Has he on
the breastplate of righteousness? Christ is our righteousness.
Are his feet shod with the gospel of peace? Christ is our peace. Does he take the shield of faith
and helmet of salvation? Christ is that shield, and he
is all our salvation. Does he take the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God? Christ is the Word of God. Thus he puts on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and by the Holy Spirit fights the fight of faith. And
in spite of men, of devils, and of his own evil heart, he lays
hold of eternal life. And thus Christ is all and in
all. Amen. Let's go home. All right. Verse 14 says, Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth. You may recall, meaning,
as at attention, like a soldier. Stand at attention. I think it
was Brother Ron over here who was in the Army. He said, we
were never at ease when we were in the Army, even when they told
us to be at ease. We weren't at ease. You fellas
remember that? At ease. You weren't at liberty
to just fall out, were you? You were still standing there
at attention. But that's the thought. Stand
as that attention. And take careful heed to what
your captain has to say. This is a battle. This is warfare. It's not play. It's a true fight. And take a stand. Do like Martin
Luther. Say, here I stand. I'll not be
moved. Can do no other. Girt with the
truth. Having your loins girt about
with the truth. Girdle of truth. The underlying
garment of everything that holds us together. The girdle of truth. The truth of who God is. That'll
keep us standing. Who God is. Keep that in mind. Keep wearing that as a frontlet,
the Lord said, between your eyes. Remember what you are and what
the flesh is. Don't ever have any confidence
in it. And Christ, who is the truth,
stand in him, stand by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you will stand. You will stand. And he goes on
to say, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, the breastplate
of righteousness with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness,
Christ said, the Lord said. with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. The heart man believes that Christ
is our righteousness. And as we noted last week in
that study, the thing which our great accuser or enemy attempts
to do is to riddle us with guilt. That's the thing that he would
try to use on us, your sin, to riddle you with guilt. with this
breastplate of righteousness, realizing, believing that Christ
is your righteousness, it'll not break your heart too much. Verse 15, he says, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of faith. Now, that's
our study tonight. Shod with the gospel. Your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel Now, like Brother
Bunyan said, with this armory on, God has provided an armor
from head to foot. The whole man is covered. If
you'll notice, God has provided us with a covering from head
to foot. Now, something I want you to
consider, that mankind, we, mankind, by nature, we are the only creatures
on this earth, born without a covering. Every other animal is born with
a covering, fur, feathers, or whatever it may be, or at least
they grow very, very quickly within a matter of hour or day. Man, by nature, is the most defenseless
creature on this planet. You know that? Man by nature,
I'm speaking of actually, physically, is the most defenseless creature
on this earth. At birth, we would not survive
without help, immediate help. We would not survive. If you
take the smallest animal, it will find its mother's teeth,
you know, very quickly. But not us. Not us. Kelly, you know, we've given
birth to a few colts. I tried to help, I didn't need
to help them find that. They've done it a long time without
man, right? But man? No, he needs help. He needs his father, his mother. In infancy, even as an infant,
we still cannot feed ourselves or walk or anything for eight,
ten, twelve months, right? So helpless. We're born without
a covering, the only animal on earth. that must be covered all
its days with something that it doesn't
have by nature. Now, there's a purpose for that.
There's a reason that's the way it is. That's the way the Lord
made us, to show us that we're naked until he covers us. That we're defenseless without
his help. That we're totally helpless,
totally dependent upon God our Father. And. I want you to consider
now we're talking tonight about the feet needing to be shot. Have your feet shot with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. What is the most tender
part of your body? It's the feet, is it not? And
it's the most susceptible to injury. It truly is. If you just just barely stub
your toe. You are totally incapacitated,
aren't you? I don't care if you're a huge
man. Just stomp your toe and you're
a crying baby. Right? The feet are so tender. So tender. Now, again, I want
to bring to your attention. Every animal but man has a covering on his feet. every single. Have a ball of
a natural covering on their feet. That they can just walk over
anything. Think about it. There's not an
animal. It's amazing. Think about a dog's feet. How
they're so equipped with pads and, you know, horses feet. Think
about it. And that man. Must be shot. Man has has to have shoes on. I thought about this, Kelly.
You know, horses never used to have shoes on until the white
man came along. The reason being, well, a little
equine lesson for you. Indians never shod their horses
because they walked over rough terrain, over rocks and all that,
and their feet got like iron. Well, the white man came along
and he corralled all his pastures up and put the horse in nice
soft green grass and his feet got soft. They had to put iron
shoes on. And then the Indians could spot
those iron shoes and they'd kill them. Well, they'd track them. Smart white man, you know. Anyway,
unlike even horses, we must make shot. We need shoes on. Now, let's consider the feet
here. First thing, our feet must be
shot. Our feet. There's much written about the
feet in the scripture. Much written. The scripture says
a great deal about the foot and the feet. Of the natural man,
it says his feet run to evil. These feet, the natural inclination
of these feet are to run to mischief. Run to evil. That's what they're
naturally born to do. As soon as we're able to walk
What we want to walk in is toward evil. And our Lord said of the
unbeliever, unless God has mercy upon him, his foot shall slide
in due time. Let him that think of his family,
take heed, lest he fall. But of God's people, those who
have been saved and redeemed, God's people, he says, David
said, thou hast delivered our feet from falling. He has put
our feet in paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. He says,
he will not suffer our feet to be moved. It says, he that, it
says, he tells us, he warns us, keep your foot when you go into
the house of God. Our Lord's turn over here with
me. Let's look at this for a minute. John chapter. Fifteen, thirteen,
thirteen. John thirteen. Yeah, yeah, this is it. John
thirteen. Our Lord. This is the story of our Lord
washing feet. And he teaching us a lesson here.
John thirteen. And the Lord girded himself with
a towel and began, verse 5, poured water in a basin, began to wash
the disciples' feet and wiped them with the towel wherewith
he was girded. And he came to Simon Peter, and
Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Peter was so embarrassed that
the Lord was going to wash his feet. Jesus answered and said
unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know
hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt
never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash
thee not, thou hast no part with me. Then Simon Peter said unto
him, Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head. Give
me a bath. I do not want to have a part
with you. But Jesus said unto him, He that
is washed needeth not. That is, does not need to be
washed all over, save or except to wash his feet. All right, what our Lord is saying
there, so much he's saying, so deep there, he's talking much
more about, it's much more than just service to others, but this
is, this, sanctification which our Lord must perform upon us
when we walk through this world. And the foot, though, and the
spiritual meaning of the feet or the foot. Let me ask you why
it's so important. Why is there so much said about
it? Now, Christ is called the head,
isn't he? He's called the head. And we're
the body. The body of Christ. He's the
head. And that's fitting. He's the high and lofty one.
The head is something men are never told are told not to cover
their head. But that's because it's a symbol
of Christ, who is the head. We always our head is the prominent.
It's always uncovered. Our head is the prominent part
of the body. And that's fitting. Christ is
the high and the lofty one. He's the one who gets the glory,
all the attention, his face. He's the one who wears the crown.
He's our head. But we're lowly, earthbound servants,
just like an old pair of feet. Our feet, what is it, what part
of your body is always on the ground? Your feet. Your feet are earthbound, always
on the ground. Remember me telling you how I'm
always rising on my toes? But I never can seem to get off
my feet. Never can seem to rise above this earth. Some days,
Scripture says, we're going to mount up on wings of eagle. But until then, we're earthbound,
like an old pair of feet. Now, you know, we talk so much about
the old man and the new man. And sometimes we get discouraged
when we think, we try to, we try to We worry because we're not making
enough progress. We think that maybe the old man
has the dominion still of the new man. He tried to distinguish
between the two. You say, like Paul. No, it was
Job, who said, why am I thus? Why am I this way? I thought
the new man, you know, would have the dominion. But the fact
is, and this is going to be for your comfort, the fact is, it's
really impossible for us to separate the two. We can't. We can't really understand it.
God has said that stuff. Like 1 John 3, for instance,
said, That which is born of God sinneth not. That new man cannot
sin. 1 John 3. Now, I believe that. that new creature is in that
created an image of Christ and holiness. They cannot say. Yet. I'm late. And I am I coming across the. It's hard to separate. The old
man and a new man. The scripture says as If he that
is of the earth is earthy, and that's us, I'm like my father
Adam, of the earth earthy. I feel sinful, lowly, that's
because I am. I'm a flesh and blood human being,
and I can't seem to rise above that. And I really, really and
truly, all things aside, I really cannot fully understand how there's these two people
in there. But I know it's so, because I do love the things
that I once hated, yet there are times when I seem to still
love the old thing. Anybody with, I feel so sinful
and lowly Like a common pair of old stinky feet. That's what
I wrote now. Like an old pair of stinky...
If I'm a member of the body, here's the thing. If I'm a member
of Christ's body, I feel like a rotten, stinking pair of feet.
There's men and women in the Scriptures who you could equate
with the hands and the head like Moses, the works of Moses, you
know, held his hands up in Israel. Joshua, Israel prevailed as long
The heart of Daniel, oh my, that man, David, man after God's own
heart, the mind of the Apostle Paul, who could contend with
even devil. But I feel less than the least. And like I said, if I'm a member
of the body, I'd be a foot, less than that, a little toe, of no
value. And if the truth be known, I
believe all of you feel the same way. And I'm so glad the Lord
said what he said when he said to those disciples who fell asleep
three times. When he went into the garden
to pray, and each time he came back and found them sleeping.
And he upbraided them. He rebuked them. He said, can't
you watch one hour? Now he knows our prayer. He knew they were fleshing blood,
and fleshing blood gets tired, gets sleepy. He knows that. Yet, they needed rebuking. That
was a very solemn time they needed to watch. He told them to, but
they didn't. They needed rebuking. Yet, he said, the Spirit indeed
is willing, but the flesh is weak. How aren't you glad he
said that? Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, and he knows
our frame. He remembers it where it does. Like a pair of feet,
now listen to these things. Let's go down through here. A
pair of feet that are always in contact with the earth. So
whatever's in contact with earth, what does it get? Dirty. Dirty. Whatever's most in contact
with the earth gets dirty. It's prone to get filthy. That's
us. The feet, something about the
feet, must be bound up properly. The feet must be bound up, must
put shoes on. We put shoes on little, little
small children. There's a reason for that. Their
feet have to be formed or they'll just plop. They must be bound
up with a good pair of orthopedic shoes. Those little shoes that
we put on kids, you'd think, oh my. But you know, their little
feet, I used to love. Her feet, when she was a baby. Those little feet, aren't they
precious? Nothing but fat. No ones that can't walk on those
things. Their toes don't even touch the ground. Oh, they're
so cute. They quickly get ugly, though.
And long. Those little feet of hers grew
long. Anyway, we put orthopedic shoes on those little kids real
quickly, don't we? To form those feet. That's necessary. It must be so. teach them to
walk right, to properly form them for walking. And the better
we put, the better the shoes, the better the feet. I used to
know a girl back in the 70s, beautiful young girl, hippie
girl, beautiful, gorgeous, and, well, she wasn't that pretty. But you heard it anyway. She never wore shoes. I don't
ever remember seeing her with a pair of shoes on. And she had
the ugliest feet you've ever seen. Looked like a duck. I'm
serious. That's what will happen if you
don't put a good pair of shoes on. Isn't that a good picture? This gospel. We're talking about
the gospel. Being that which shods us, which formed us. I'll
get into that more in a minute. The feet need protection. As
I said, our feet, naturally, we don't have any protection.
Don't have any protection. We've got to have shoes on. The
feet, as I said, need help for not only walking, but working
and running. You're going to run. Right, John? You can't just put on a pair
of work boots. You've got to have the right shoes. And like
I said, feet get so dirty, they always need washing. Well, this
is all such a good analogy and illustration, and this is why
we need to be shod with the gospel. This gospel is what the Lord
puts on us, what we're shod with. It's called the gospel of peace,
and it's our spiritual shoes. Now listen, the gospel is the
power of God. The gospel enables us to walk
by faith. enables us to walk by faith.
The gospel enables us to live by faith. The gospel enables
us to run this race. The gospel is how we run this
race, the human race. The gospel keeps us from falling,
from our feet, from slipping and sliding away. The gospel
enables us to work a right. And let me take all of these
one at a time. The gospel binds us up like a pair of feet, like
a good pair of shoes on our feet. It sets our feet in paths of
righteousness. The feet that are so prone to
mischief and prone to evil, it prevents us from running that
way, but the gospel hedges us about. The gospel of Christ hedges
us about. And like Peter said, after the
Lord calls you by the gospel, sets your feet in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake, begins you on this heavenly race looking
unto the Lord Jesus. than your old cronies and all
who you used to run with. Those who used to run to evil
and mischief with, Peter said, they think it's strange that
you don't run to the same excess of right as you used to. And
you're running away from that now. Right? You used to run to
it. What changed your course? What
turned your feet? It was the gospel. It turned
you 180 degrees. to where now you're like Joseph
running from that. It doesn't mean you don't ever
turn around, but you're running from that now. You're trying
to get away from that. You're running to Christ by faith. So this gospel is what hedges
us about or binds us up like a good pair of shoes. They said,
the Lord said to Peter, well, the Lord said some hard things.
And all the people left, everybody, except the disciple. And he said to them, remember
what he said? He said, will you also go away? There's a door
for you to go. And what did Peter say? Well,
he said what I said, from the heart, to whom shall we go? Where am I going to go? I don't
want to go back where I want. Like the prodigal son, I sure
don't want to go back to the hog pen. There's nothing back
there I want. There's nobody I want. But David
said, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there's none on earth
I desire beside thee. Thee being Christ Peter. Right? Will you also go away?
Peter said, To whom shall we go? Well, this is life. Peter
said, Thou hast the words of life. This is life to me. It's
not just religion. This is my life. This keeps me
living. This is something worth living
for. I never was alive until I heard the gospel, because it
is words of life. It's quickened me. Quickened. So, well, the gospel is what
sets our feet straight. Well, the gospel Like a good
pair of shoes is our protection. Our protection. Paul said in
Philippians 4, 7, he says, the peace of God, or that is the
gospel of peace, which passeth understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through our Lord Jesus Christ. It will keep
you. Peter also, Peter said, we're
kept by the power of God. through faith, ready to be revealed
for the last time. We're kept by the power of God.
What keeps you? The gospel. This keeps you. Keeps you, Nancy, keep it on. You couldn't make it without
this gospel. It keeps you. Keeps you from falling away,
from falling away. And though we do stub our toes,
our spiritual toes, we stumble and fall, yet shod with the gospel.
The Lord makes sure we land on our feet. Land on our feet running. The gospel teaches us how to
walk. We've got to learn to walk like
little children. And here's what Titus, or Paul said to Titus,
the gospel, the grace of God, the gospel of God's grace teaches
us denying ungodliness and worldly love. That is eschewing those
things which we once ran to. Denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in
this present world. The gospel teaches us to walk
by faith in Christ, looking unto him, as I said, as the scripture
said, the author and finisher of our faith. Not only as the
prize, not only as our substitute, but as our example. walking as
he walked. It teaches us to walk. The gospel
teaches us how to work. You know, before we hear the
gospel, people try to work out their own righteousness, don't
they? People think they're working
their way to heaven. They think the things that they
are doing merit them favor with God, didn't you? Everybody thinks
that. You be good, God, you'll go to
heaven. Little children think that. If
you be good, you do good, then God will reward you with heaven
for that. Well, the gospel teaches us that
you can't work your way there. It's by grace, you say. And the
gospel does teach us how to work that. The scriptures calls the
works which the believer does works of faith. Right? works of faith, a labor
of love. It's not merit. We don't work
to earn God's favor. We work because we have His favor.
It's not mercenary for money. We don't work to try to please
God. is us that these works of our.
Well, listen to that James said faith without work is dead. Right. Faith without works is dead.
But works without faith. Is what? Dead works. Get that dead work works without
faith in Christ are dead works. Even the plowing of the wicked
is evil to God Almighty. So the works, God teaches us
to work out of love, work of faith and labor of love, not
for merit. And this gospel teaches us that.
When I see somebody going about to establish their own righteousness,
I quickly know that they haven't been taught the gospel. And it's
like using illustration. I've worked a lot of construction
and started in a ditch. That's where my construction
experience began, with a Kentucky backhoe. You know what a Kentucky
backhoe is? I got them here in Virginia.
Same thing. It's a shovel. I'm an expert in one of those,
Roy. Well, I learned quickly, if you're going to dig in a ditch,
if it's hard digging, Mac, you can't do it in a pair of tennis
shoes, can you? No, sir. If some fella comes
up to the job site with a pair of tennis shoes on, and we got
ditches to dig, I know him. He ain't never dug no ditch.
And he's not going to get much done. Same way with these works. Anybody who thinks their works,
who thinks there's anything about their works is meriting them
anything. They haven't heard the gospel.
They don't know. So, I don't know if that's a good illustration
or not. But the gospel teaches us how to work. Shod with the
preparation of the gospel. Go with me to Deuteronomy 29.
Deuteronomy 29. The gospel, like a good pair
of shoes, never wears out. Never wears out. You're going
to like this. Deuteronomy 29. A really good
pair of shoes lasts a long time, don't they? Women, I'm giving you a good
excuse to spend a lot of money on shoes. Right back there is
a shoe salesman. of the highest order, right? Barbara Ross, how many shoes
have you sold in your lifetime? Hundreds of thousands. You have,
haven't you? Literally. Hundreds of thousands
of shoes. Do you know I've still got the
first pair of shoes I bought from you? Yeah, they're in my
closet. I can still wear them. They're
a good pair of wingtips. Great shoes. Good shoes will
last a long time if you take care of them. It lasted long. I started working on the railroad
back in 1977, and I got hired as a brakeman. And knowing that
a brakeman does a lot of walking on ballast or gravel, big rocks,
gravel, a lot of walking, miles and miles of walking those trains,
walking those trains. And knowing that, I asked, I
knew I needed a good pair of boots, steel toe boots, that's
required. And so I asked some of the men
who'd been around a while what the best pair of boots was. And
they told me, Herman Survivors, without a question. So I bought
me a pair of Hermann Survivors in 1977 and paid $125 for them. In 1977. That's a lot of money. What? I still have those boots. I resold them one time. And men
on the railroad, they take care of the shoes. They're all the
time polishing their boots. That's what they do. And I did
it. and all that all over them, you
know, make oil. I still have those boots. I can
still wear them today. I've walked hundreds, literally
hundreds and hundreds of miles in those boots. I still have
them. So that's a good illustration.
The gospel never wears out. You can walk a lifetime. Look
at Deuteronomy 29, verse 2. Moses called unto all Israel
and said unto them, You have seen all that the Lord did before
your eyes in the land of Egypt, unto Pharaoh, and unto all his
servant, and unto all his land. Verse 3, The great trials or
temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs and those
great miracles. Verse 5, And I have led you forty
years in the wilderness. Your clothes are not waxed old
upon you, and thy shoe is not waxed old upon thy foot. Those children of Israel wore
the same pair of shoes for forty years. Longer than my Hermann survived. Now isn't that a good illustration?
This gospel never wears out. How long have you been hearing
the gospel now, Henry? Thirty years? Or more? You tired of it? There you sit. Roberta, there
you sit. Not tired of it yet, are you?
And you know, like a good old pair of shoes, they get more
comfortable with age, don't they? They get more comfortable. If
those shoes, Barbara, that you sold me weren't so, they're a
little out of date now. But, and they're a little bit
turned up at the toe. If it wasn't for all that, I'd
still wear them. Because they're just so soft and comfortable.
And this gospel is more, the older you get, the more you walk
by faith, the more you hear this gospel, the more comfort you
get from it. Huh? Somebody nod your head like
yourself. You old folks, especially. The
more gospel, the more you walk by faith in Christ, the longer
you wear this gospel shoes, the more comfortable it is to you. The more comfort you get from
it. The gospel. Same old gospel. We'll go back
to season six. Paul calls it the preparation
of the gospel. Having your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of Pete. This gospel prepares us. What is the gospel? It's Christ. Like Bunyan said, it's the story
of Christ. It's who he is and what he did. This gospel is of him who prepared
a place for us. Didn't he say that? Let not your
heart be troubled. If you believe in God, believe
also in me. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. And many. When the Lord says
many, that means many. That means there may be one for
me. I believe there is. He wouldn't have given me all
this hope and all this encouragement if it wasn't. He said, well,
there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. And I go, he said, to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I'll come again,
receive you again unto myself. And where I am, you may be also. This gospel is all about Christ,
who prepared us for heaven. The word prepare means to make
fit. If you prepare something, you make it fit. And our Lord
Jesus Christ made us meet, the scripture says, to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. He makes us fit by making
us holy, to be in that holy place. We're prepared by Christ to be
in the presence of our God, made holy, made righteous by him,
his righteousness imputed. We're prepared for glory. And
not only that, but this thing of hearing the gospel and what
we're doing right now, we're being prepared for real worship. We're being prepared. It's the
gospel, it's the preparation of the gospel of people. Do you
love the gospel now? Do you love to hear the gospel
now? You're really going to love it
then. This is preparation. You're hearing
a bunch of Fellas that are on the job training.
You're hearing a bunch of, what's the word? I can't think. Apprentice. That's it. Thank
you, Jeanette. You're hearing a bunch of apprentices
trying. You're hearing the, like old
Abraham's servant who went to get a bride for Isaac and he's
trying to tell her about Isaac. and where he lived and who he
was and all about his riches and all that. Old man with just
a little pocket change, trying to tell her. But the power of
God moved on her and she's willing to go. But she, boy, when she,
she hadn't heard anything. She didn't, half hadn't been
told. Until she saw us. She lit off her candle. Bit you. Hit the dirt. Said, who is that?
He said, that's the one I was trying to tell you about. She
said, oh. And she fell in love with him
immediately. This gospel, you love the gospel now. Wait till
you hear the Lord tell it. You love preaching now? Wait. You just wait till you
hear the Lord preach. Even the enemies of the Lord
came back from hearing him speak and they were spellbound. They
said, no man speaks like this man. Brother Gabe and I were
talking about this. I really believe that. I believe
the Lord is going to take this very word here and preach to
it. Scripture says He's magnified
His word above all His name. Forever... Oh, here's a good
verse I didn't think about. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. This word stands forever. And I believe the word hits himself. Christ, the word himself, is
going to start in Genesis 1, verse 1, and preach for 5,000
years. And things we've never heard
before. In the beginning, God. And what else is he going to
say about that? I mean, in the beginning. Before there was an
earth, before there was anything, it was God. Before Satan, when
all that had happened in the beginning, God. What all is he
going to say about that? Created the heavens and the earth.
Now he's going to go into great detail. He's going to show us!
Isn't that amazing? You love it now, don't you? I
can't even commence to get started to try to tell it. But he is. The whole thing will be told
when He tells it. What about the old types? We've
missed half of the types, or more. Oh, He's going to reveal
it to us. I really believe that. Do you
love the Gospel now? You'll really love it then. Do you love worship
now? Do you love, just love this?
Everything about this thing of worship and fellowship with the
saints? Huh? You just wait until we're
in a number which no man can number. Everybody's singing with
a perfect voice. Grinning from ear to ear. Loving
you with every fiber of their being. And you, them. Fellowship where it will never
be heard. Well, no tears, no... I can't describe it. How much
more? Will we enjoy it then? This is,
as the song says, a foretaste of glory divine. And you know
what? When we get to glory, we're all
going to be wearing not only the same robe. We're all going
to be wearing the same robe, right? All the saints are dressed
in white robes, the scripture says. It's the righteousness
of saints. It's the righteous robe of Christ
that he provided for them. We're all going to be wearing
same pair of shoes. Same pair of shoes. All right. The preparation
of the gospel of peace. Peace. That's what it said. Turn in
closing to John chapter fourteen. In closing. It's called the gospel of peace. As Bunyan said, Christ is our
peace. He made peace for us. This is how we walk by faith. This gospel of peace enables
us to keep walking through this world and not fall away, realizing
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
made peace for us. He reconciled us to God. Look at verse 27. It's a two-fold
peace. He says, Peace I leave with you. Peace I leave with you. In other
words, he made peace by the blood of his cross. He made peace between
us and God. God who would be angry with us. outside of Christ, yet in Christ
loves us, is not angry with the wrath of God, does not abide
upon us, but rather the love of God and peace with God our
Father. Peace I leave with you, because
Christ was chastised. The chastisement of our peace
was laid on him. And the secondfold peace is my
peace I give unto you. the peace which Christ had inward
peace, peace of mind, peace of heart. He gives us, he puts in
us, in our hearts and mind. Folks, if it wasn't for this
gospel, you'd go crazy. You'd go crazy. This world, if it wasn't for
this gospel, You'd be right in the middle
of it, and it wouldn't bother you so bad, the world wouldn't.
If you had a little sense, it'd still bother you. And it'd
make you, it'd drive you crazy with fear and worry, terrorism,
all this stuff, your children, sending them to school. You'd
just be fraught with worry, wouldn't you? If it wasn't for this gospel,
I'd want to take my family and move to the hills away from all
this, wouldn't you? But Christ said, peace, peace,
peace. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in him. This gospel gives us peace. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
gospel. Forgive us of our poor attempts
to preach it, but we do thank you for what you do make known
unto us. And we thank you for Christ,
our peace. It's in his name we're met here
tonight. Amen. Thank you. I don't know. you.